Sir Thomas Lawrence: 'The Red Boy'

Painted in 1825, in the latter years of Lawrence’s career, 'The Red Boy' is considered one of the artist’s most accomplished portraits. This ambitious work is on an unexpectedly large scale for a portrait of a young child and differs from Lawrence's typical early portraits.

When first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1825 the painting gained much attention and was greatly admired.

Critics commented that with its "simple action and sweet expression of infantile nature" the painting even exceeded the reputation of the leading English portraitist of the previous generation, Sir Joshua Reynolds.

‘The Red Boy’ was the first-ever painting to be featured on a British postage stamp. It also attracted further attention thanks to the popular story that the sitter’s velvet ‘skeleton suit’ – the name often given to this type of attire - had originally been painted in yellow.

The painting’s nickname, ‘The Red Boy’, reflects the trend during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to give portraits of children titles that included the painting’s dominant colour.

The portrait depicts Charles William Lambton, eldest son of John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham  – a Whig politician and MP for County Durham. It was the sitter's father who commissioned Lawrence to paint this portrait.

Lawrence’s sitter would have been aged only six or seven when this portrait was painted in 1825. The delicate flowers opening at Charles William Lambton’s side are thought to symbolise his age and youthful innocence.

However, the expansive and atmospheric landscape beyond also conveys a sense of worldliness and opportunity, as well, perhaps, as a looming sense of the unknown.

Lambton sits on a promontory – a point of high land that juts out into a body of water – and overlooks a moonlit sea. Through this Lawrence portrays Lambton as a child wanderer, lost in contemplation of the sublime power of nature surrounding him.

Lawrence may have even intended for the painting’s setting to convey the idea that this young boy is on the cusp of maturity – ready to embark on a journey into the unknown realm of adult life.

Although Lawrence could not have known at the time of painting this portrait, Charles William Lambton would not reach adulthood. His life was tragically cut short when he died of tuberculosis aged only thirteen.

This sensitive yet powerful portrait remained with the sitter’s family from 1825 until 2021, when its acquisition for the nation was made possible by numerous supporters. Including the American Friends of the National Gallery, the Estate of Miss Gillian Cleaver...

...Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), The Al Thani Collection Foundation, The Manny and Brigitta Davidson Charitable Foundation, Mr William Sharpe, and The Society of Dilettanti Charitable Trust.